The Berlin electronic icon releases a splendid new album, dense and vibrant.
Having been involved since the early 1990s in Berlin’s electronic scene, the DJ and producer Ellen Allien, head of the BPitch Control and UFO Inc. labels and a party organizer, is today one of the most emblematic and charismatic figures on the scene.
Reflecting her deep connection with the German capital, her first two albums – Stadtkind (2001) and Berlinette (2003) – exude a shimmering and hypnotic electro-pop, finely crafted. Thrills (2005) and Sool (2008) carve a more minimalist groove, between electronica and ambient. A clear shift with Nost (2017), Alientronic (2019) and AurAA (2020), an impeccable trilogy dedicated to deep and tightly wound techno, as heard in the Tresor basement or in the main room of Berghain.
A techno firmly oriented toward the future
Six years after AurAA, her eighth album New Life arrives at the start of summer. In the interim, while maintaining an intense DJ schedule, Ellen Allien released two EPs and a (devastating) standalone track, Under the Ocean (2025), composed after the passing of her mother. This personal tragedy has certainly also influenced New Life.
From its title and from start to finish, the album conveys a fervent desire for (new) life at the pace of a techno that is decisively oriented toward the future. Hyper-organic, threaded with human voices and sounds of nature, the ten tracks – with a special nod to Lights Off, Steh Auf and Mein Herz – form a world that is powerfully moving to explore again and again.
New Life (BPitch Control/PIAS). Release on July 9.
